Just wondering if anyone is using the Dell Powerconnect 5548 to do VLANs. I already have some 6248 switches and due to physical size restrictions need to put in some 5548s. I am a little concerned at the fact they only have 64mb of ram and am worried about the possible performance of them.

I have another supplier saying I should get some Juniper EX2200s but they are considerably more expensive and would like to stick with Dell if possible.

I don't run Powerconnect switches in my environment, but I did a quick check and these systems appear vary capable.

The switching fabric is 170Gbs (for the 48 port), this is what moves your data. When comparing devices this is the number you want to look at. Understand for a lower port count your switching fabric should be less, because you have less ports. Your concern about the 64MB of ram is not necessary, this is an embedded system not a desktop computer. For am embedded computer 64MB is acceptable. Remember this device has a dedicated purpose, to move data. You don't have large fluctuations in memory requirements with an embedded system.

Unless you have an abnormal bandwidth requirements this switch will work OK for you. If you do have uplink bottlenecks you can always bond a few ports together to create a LAG or LACP trunk.

Things you should consider is keeping a single vendor for your network infrastructure, that way there is only one set of management tools, and one (generally) user interface or cli to learn.

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I don't run Powerconnect switches in my environment, but I did a quick check and these systems appear vary capable.

The switching fabric is 170Gbs (for the 48 port), this is what moves your data. When comparing devices this is the number you want to look at. Understand for a lower port count your switching fabric should be less, because you have less ports. Your concern about the 64MB of ram is not necessary, this is an embedded system not a desktop computer. For am embedded computer 64MB is acceptable. Remember this device has a dedicated purpose, to move data. You don't have large fluctuations in memory requirements with an embedded system.

Unless you have an abnormal bandwidth requirements this switch will work OK for you. If you do have uplink bottlenecks you can always bond a few ports together to create a LAG or LACP trunk.

Things you should consider is keeping a single vendor for your network infrastructure, that way there is only one set of management tools, and one (generally) user interface or cli to learn.